Introduction: Welcome To My Blog

Who I Am

I'm an average improver. I'm still an advanced beginner (900 Chess.com and 1600 Lichess). I also enjoy tennis, mini golf, and football. I'm 99% sure I'm ADHD; I've just never been tested. When I had work, I could only dedicate 4-5 hours a week. I can now do 10.5 hours if I wish, but that seems like a lot and so I'm not going to. I might increase it by a small amount though.

My Chess Journey

In September of 2023, I got in to chess for reasons I can't remember, telling myself to solve all 3 Chess.com puzzles a day. I believe it was because several of my friends were playing too. About a year later, I found out about ChessDojo, which I will dedicate a post to. After that, I realized that I needed a structured training plan every day, so I came up with my own. I was about to buy a premium membership to the Dojo to make remove the friction and effort of making a plan for each day, but I decided to wait for Dojo 4.0. I decided to take a break from chess until that. That was late March 2025. Dojo 4.0 came out on May 14 and turned out to be nothing big. Then I went on vacation, and by the time I got back, I was no longer interested in chess. I tried to come back with my own plan several times, but I never had the motivation. Then, in January, I found out about the regional qualifiers for our state's championship. I was excited, and practiced a little, but it was only a few days before the tournament. I managed to retain most of my skills and place 3rd and qualify for state. I only had a few weeks to prepare, so I decided to lock in and improve as much as possible in the limited training time that I was willing to dedicate. After that, I got back into chess for the team championships, and it became my hobby once again. I've improved my training plan since.

My Previous Posts

A few months or years ago I'd made a few other blog posts. 2 of them, which I haven't deleted, were about some random ideas I had. another one was a review of ChessDojo that I didn't like, so I took it down. The other was an introduction to a weekly review and reflection of my improvement (I got the idea from another blogger; I may still do it, but I don't know where I'll find the time).

Chess.com

I plan to copy-paste everything here into Chess.com as well.

What I'm Planning to Post

ChessMood Is A Scam

Either that, or its courses are so high quality that all of them earn an average of 5 out of 5 stars. For those who don't know, ChessMood is an website that's main feature is a course library. In this post, I plan to explain all of my complaints about it.

Walkthrough of My Training Plan

I'm going to explain exactly how I train. This may take multiple posts, but you can takeaway what you want or your own training. I'll list what resources I use and how, along with the structure of my plan (2/3-1/4-1/12 vs. 2/5-2/5-1/5).

Analysis Method

Based on advice from IM David Pruess, GM Noel Studer, and FM Dina Belankaya, I've created my own analysis method. However, after using it, I had a long list of though process changes that I had taken away from the game. I don't know how I'm supposed to implement it all, or even if I should. I asked more specific, detailed questions about it here. As soon as I get a reply and try it out, I'll explain the method in a blog post. If you guys have any suggestions, please let me know.

Reader's Choice

Once you get to know me a bit more from these four, if I have more time, I'll look through the comments for a good option and I'll make a post about that too. I may make multiple of those.

Chess.com Diamond Membership Value

I'm going to look at every single benefit of Chess.com's diamond membership and give my estimate/opinion in its value. At the end, I'll total the amounts for all of the features and compare that to the actual cost of it.

ChessMood Course Reviews

When doing the research for my "ChessMood Is A Scam" post, I realized that part of each of the courses were free. I decided to try them out. Because that post included a brief review of a course I did 2-3 years ago, I thought it would be more fair to do an updated review. Therefore, I'm going to make a post with reviews for all of the courses that I do try.

GM Noel Studer

Noel is one of my most favorite GMs, with lots of improvement advice. In this post, I'll detail exactly why he's so awesome, along with some of the problems I have with him.